Statement delivered by Samuel Barton President of the Marshall Islands Student Assocation at Australian Parliament House Canberra

On behalf of the Marshall Islands Students Association, who are based on the Laucala Campus and Fiji National University in Suva, Fiji, and we run a campaign called MISA4thePacific (Marshall Islands Students Association 4 the Pacific), a youth-led regional student and antinuclear activist movement formed primarily to raise awareness amongst our peers on the impacts of nuclear testing in our home, the Marshall Islands, and the Pacific. We would like to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet today. We would also like to pay our respects to the Elders of past, present, and future. 

Iakwe and Hello,

My name is Samuel Barton. I am the current President of the Marshall Islands Students Association and a fourth-year law student studying at the University of the South Pacific. Today, I stand before you as a son of the Marshall Islands, acting in the best interests of my people and giving voice to those whose stories are too long forgotten.

Between 1946 and 1958, the Marshall Islands became the testing grounds of 67 known nuclear weapons tests, including the Castle Bravo test conducted on March 1st 1954. This event stands as the most destructive nuclear test in United States history, let alone the world, unleashing a 15- megaton explosion that triggered a persistent humanitarian and environmental crisis. The
resulting radioactive fallout blanketed the inhabited Marshallese atolls such as Rongelap, Ailinginae, and Utirik, causing immediate acute radiation sickness and instigating a multigenerational public health crisis marked by elevated rates of thyroid cancer, leukemia, and birth defects. Environmentally, the blast vaporized three islands, gouged a massive crater into
Bikini Atoll, and contaminated over 7,000 square miles of the Pacific Ocean with long-lived radionuclides. This severe contamination permanently disrupted the local food web, rendering traditional diets unsafe and forcing permanent population displacements alongside a lasting dependency on imported goods.

“For the good of mankind and to end all wars”, were the words spoken by Commodore Ben H. Wyatt before relocating the Bikinians under the pretext of religion – Men otemjij rej ilo bein Anij – everything is in the hands of God. The people were not aware that they were planned to be used as lab rats and guinea pigs for the United States of America.

The Runit Dome is a stark reminder of the atrocity of the nuclear testing that took place. The US settled on a crater just on the atoll of Runit, an island of Enewetak, what was once feeding ground for an entire community, turned as a dumpsite for the radioactive wastes. Additionally, the US also transferred their own radioactive wastes from the Nevada Testing Site to Runit Atoll.
Having built on a porous coral sediment, the radioactive material under the dome mixes itself with the seawater, contaminating entire marine ecosystems around the island and now risks facing impacts of climate change. Our nation contributes almost nothing to global greenhouse gas emissions, yet we face rising sea levels, coastal erosion, saltwater intrusion into freshwater supplies, and further increasing threats to food security and infrastructure.

These issues are not separate but are interconnected challenges that demand collective action. International law reminds us that every person has the right to life, health, culture, and a healthy environment, reflected across multiple international human rights instruments. The rights that I hold dearly to my heart are based on the rights of the child. The Convention of the Rights of the
Child provides that the best interests of the child are paramount. In this sense, we must ask ourselves this question: What kind of future are we leaving our children in? The children during the era of nuclear testing lost their right to their own lands and heritage. What was once the place to receive sustenance from the land and the ocean was erased from the face of the earth. The people of Bikini and Enewetak were very skillful sailors and were considered as people who possessed substantial knowledge in navigating the ocean using the ocean currents, swells, wind, clouds, and the stars in the sky. While it may seem as primitive,
science cannot explain how knowledge preserved the Marshallese nation sailing the seas for thousands of years. Today, these same people have been displaced to various parts of the United States of America and face social discrimination within the communities they are now presiding in. I heard stories where the Marshallese community are being called racial slurs. “Micronesian roach” is a derogatory term used against the Marshallese people due to the fact that roaches are highly resistant to radiation.

Imagine becoming a mother. After delivering your first off spring, you feel very happy and excited. However, you felt a shock throughout your body after seeing that the very same child you bore was born without limbs. The pain was unbearable. Some of the babies were born without toes and fingers, without any organs, while the most heartbreaking ones were labelled as jellyfish babies, in the sense that the skins were literally transparent and having octopus-like appearances.

Although it is sad and unfortunate, our story is about resilience and our quest for self- determination. I, acting in the best interests of my people, humbly ask each and every leader to do what is morally right and just.

The Australian government has a unique opportunity to play a transformative role in global disarmament by fully embracing the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). By transitioning from an observer state to a formal signatory, Australia can bridge the divide between its traditional military alliances and its commitment to human rights. Most importantly, by actively funding the TPNW’s mandates for environmental remediation and victim assistance, the Australian government can provide critical, long-overdue resources to rehabilitate the Pacific environments and support the communities still suffering from the catastrophic, multigenerational legacy of nuclear testing. Before I end my remark, I’d like to share a Marshallese proverb, “Anin Jitbon Mar”, which means “Spiritual Calling from our Islands”, reminds us of our island identity, reflecting our deep
cultural and spiritual connection to the islands and honours the voices of those affected. May that calling also reach the Australian government to shape a future of the Blue Pacific free from the threat of nuclear weapons.

Kommool tata.